Our Individual Gardens

 

 

A gloomy picture of the future emerges as we view a worsening global energy situation and grow acutely aware of the devastation caused by climate change on our world. Notably, the climate change results, at least in large part, from humankind's lack of stewardship of the earth. The continued use of fossil fuels, especially dirty coal, is particularly worrisome in the future.

    All of the foregoing is doubly exacerbated by the unabated demands of an exponentially growing population driven by greed without regard to the future. Does Earth have a chance? A look at the growing demands of developing economies like India and China for more and more energy, coupled with the refusal of developed nations of the world to recognize these needs leads to a poor prognosis for the future of our species. An article illustrative of the problems that are coming up in India and other parts of Asia, shows that suicides are already increasing greatly in India as fertilizer supplies fail.  This process is referred to as "die off" and will claim billions of people on the planet before it is through. See www.hindu.com/the hindu/holnus/001200808011140.htm

    In my youth, I lived for a couple of years in India in the mid-60s during a bad time of famine and threat of war. I observed levels of poverty that would have been judged unacceptable in this country. At that time, the western world came to the rescue through the supply of surplus food grains and other assistance.

Later with the growing globalization of world trade, India and China, be rift of hard currency, found a market for the major asset they did possess: Labor or sweat equity. The trail has been rough, but both countries have become less impoverished as the global economy has grown. We all know the process. Labor in the industrial nations of the world became expensive compared to the price offered by the labor pools of third world nations. Capitalists reaped profits and destroyed jobs in America and other developed nations as they "out sourced" factories and service needs to what were viewed as "sweat shop" countries.

The energy crisis now looms for all nations big and small. Look at the following website for a perspective: http://www.orionmagazine.org/index.php/articles/article/2962 and before you say that bio-fuels offer an escape, visit http://www.archive.org/details/Myths_of_Biofuels. We need strong leadership.

As children growing up in a vast land of what appeared to be infinite resources, we were taught that each of us could individually reach for the stars. Now in a world of 6.7 billion people, those dreams have to be revised. Some say that present circumstances portend the arrival of a more autocratic society regardless of protests. The "rugged individualism" that encouraged the greed and boundless appetites of the past will fall.

Others argue that the future is going to be one where we can't do it alone, no matter how hard we work in our individual gardens. We will need each other and the contributions of each other without the additional burden of competition. One thing is almost a certainty: The future will dictate a complete rethinking of how we organize our society. The old way of greed and consumerism is no more.

On a brighter note, into this void of gloom and doom come new ideas you should know about. Many say that vanity cannot be eradicated from human nature. A good compromise may be found at a nifty new shop in Tallahassee, Florida, where the emphasis is on a green world and the value of recycling. The name of the shop is Almost Exclusive. Their stock includes many innovative ideas for saving energy and finding new lives for products previously consigned to the junk pile. Visit the web site at www.almostexclusive.com for more details. Also, what do you think about a magic food to feed the world? Well, kinda like magic. Go to http://www.ted.com/index.php/talks/paul_stamets_on_6_ways_mushrooms_can_save_the_world.html
for more details.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

What Can I Do?

A recent luncheon date with a couple of young people in fresh possession of their college degrees was very satisfying. They are regular readers of this blog. As we reviewed the world scene and the state of the many constraints that we face in the future to the continuation of our present life styles, one of the young folks asked the question that is on all of our minds. Okay, the world is going to be vastly different. What can I do as an individual for myself and others?

I contemplated the question. I remembered a good quote from my friend, Rube Cretin, who wrote:

Here's the plain truth, folks: Hope is not a consumer product. You have to generate your own hope. You do that by demonstrating to yourself that you are brave enough to face reality and competent enough to deal with the circumstances that it presents. How we will manage to uphold a decent society in the face of extraordinary change will depend on our creativity, our generosity, and our kindness, and I am confident that we can find these resources within our own hearts, and collectively in our communities.

A good starting point to dealing with the future may be found at: http://www.orionmagazine.org/index.php/articles/list/C61/

As part of this discussion, we certainly should never lose sight of the quotation from Marion Zimmer Bradley, that "the road that is built in hope is more pleasant to the traveler than the road built in despair, even though they both lead to the same destination."

Some practical equipment options for use of solar energy is available at http://www.lifeaftertheoilcrash.net/ItemCategorySubPages/SurvivalStore.html also the home site http://www.lifeaftertheoilcrash.net/ should certainly not be ignored.

Be aware of the value of a good garden and get busy. A great deal of room is not needed. A small kitchen garden will provide more than an adequate amount of fresh vegetables for most of us. It is, however, essential to have good sunlight and a source of water. "Perma-Culture" farming is a good phrase to Google and learn how to proceed with this effort to make a better life in the future.

A wealth of information can be found on the internet at http://www.motherearthnews.com/ and similar sites.

In conclusion, remember that we are all in the same boat and together we will find greater meaning in exploring the immensity of this new sea than in the yearning for the seashore that may never be visible again.

 

 

Solar Energy At Brief Recess

Brief Recess, my country home where I retreat from time to time, is the greatest place to read, reflect and review the happenings of the world "out there." Here, in the early morning, the wind sings in the pines, the deer and wild turkeys come up to feed and all is right with the world.

Unfortunately, this wonderful isolation is just that. The dial-up connection (remember those days?) to the internet is agonizingly slow. So, sometimes when isolated here at my retreat, I go for days blissfully unaware of breaking news except that which I can get in the evenings via rabbit ears on the ancient console TV that adorns my living room. And all that is fine. Except, when I am compelled to write, a compulsion not much different, I suspect, than a drug addict looking for a fix, the need to input facts and figures invariably rears its ugly head as I am addressing a particular esoteric subject. At such times, one needs to proceed to the "net" and to research.

All of which brings me to the subject of internet access. In contemplating the passing parade of humankind as it struggles to redefine its existence and make rapid adjustment to the manner of living that will be enjoyed by most members of our species in the future, the communication that will be afforded by the internet will become even more indispensable. If you have read this blog from its inception, you may be aware that I have referenced readers to http://www.lifeaftertheoilcrash.net/Index.html for an introduction to how we survive in those future changing times.

Well, we really do not have to wait for the truly bad, bad times to get here. I am discovering that the availability of fast internet connection through the use of satellite technology is becoming more and more economical. Assuming that access to the satellites will continue as long as they are up there and functioning, we have to consider the source of electrical power for the computer as costs for conventional grid electricity will soar upward and upward. The external power source which I am presently investigating is solar. Electricity from solar panels will hopefully provide the necessary energy to allow me to continue to connect with the world, make observations and absorb knowledge about what is happening. No doubt you will also want to investigate this alternative source of green energy for keeping up with what is happening in a rapidly changing world if you live in a rural area or just think your cable computer provider could do better.

Earthspirit

A good book for dealing with the emergence of the present day circumstances has come my way. Earthspirit is termed by its author, Michael Dowd, as a "handbook for nurturing an Ecological Christianity." The book's message is written simply and to the point. Evolution is part of the religious experience. The all of existence, universe, galaxy, animated and unanimated life, continue that march of change to fit circumstances in a process called evolution.

 

In my way of looking at the doctrine postulated in this book, all living things are part and parcel of a collective existence that imposes individual responsibilities and grants individual freedoms. The story of Genesis is a wonderful tool for presenting the basic creation story to the developing mind. Light, thunder and life begins. The process of evolution on earth has started.

 

Borrowing heavily from the beliefs of Native Americans, Dowd, through this book seeks to bring the reader to an appreciation of the individual's responsibilities in fulfilling the duties of stewardship imposed by an increased level of consciousness. Particularly enlightening for me was the proposal that the increasing level of consciousness applies not only to us, living and breathing humans, but to the entire universe itself.

 

At the same time, the book calls attention to the deficiencies of organized religion and its failure to address God's charge to nurture our world and, indeed, our existence. Your attention to the issues set forth in the book is deserved. If given an opportunity, please read it and reflect. Consider whether the real issue is: Do ethical considerations have a place at the table of science? After all, opportunity is a universal desire and one which all of us have within us to create.

You Don’t Know How It Feels

Tom Petty plaintively sings a lyric to a tune in his album, Wild Flowers, with the words "you don't know how it feels to be me." That phrase is so applicable to our world today. We are all individuals and, although we can empathize with each other in regard to a particular experience, we can never truly know the other's deepest feelings.

Unfortunately, some people take this essence of individualism and pervert it. The proponents of this perversion maintain a claim that our basic animalistic nature dictates our behavior; that this justifies the contortion of this essence of individualism to a rule that says our individualism dictates competition. Such an approach is suicidal for our species and, if we continue to follow it, we are lost. Our culture exalted the value of "rugged individualism" in the past during a day and time of what appeared to be a world full of inexhaustive natural resources.

Sadly, the realization is just dawning for some that the emphasis can no longer be on "me" instead of "us." Greed can no longer be justified with the Ann Rand slogan of "the only pure virtue." The tendency to turn to promotion of self interest first has always been wrong. From Buddha through Christ to Mohammed, the word that it is wrong has gone forth and fallen on deaf ears.

Soon now, the continued emphasis on self by an individual will mean that the individual is not only stupid, but will also signal the elimination of that individual's place in the gene pool. Years ago, Clyde Kluckhohn on page 41 of his book Mirror For Man noted the fatal flaw in the prevailing justification of greed or rugged individualism with these words:

Many people in our society feel that the best way to get people to work harder is to increase their profits or their wages. They feel that it is just "human nature" to want to increase one's material possessions. This sort of dogma might well go unchallenged if we had no knowledge of other cultures. In certain societies, however, it has been found that the profit motive is not an effective incentive. After contact with whites the Trobriand Islanders in Melanesia could have become fabulously rich from pearl diving. They would, however, work only long enough to satisfy their immediate wants.

And so, I urge that you consider the words from the disciple Thomas, particularly verse 113 of the "Scholars' Translation" of the Gospel of Thomas by Stephen Patterson and Marvin Meyer, wherein Thomas reports the words of Jesus that "the Father's kingdom is spread out upon the earth,
and people don't see it."

In that same vein, we should never forget the closing words of President Kennedy's inaugural address where he stressed "let us go forth to lead the land we love, asking His blessing and His help, but knowing that here on earth God's work must truly be our own."

We Didn’t Start the Fire

The sound reverberated in my head as I walked. Billy Joel sang the lyrics to We Didn't Start the Fire. For the first time, I also deciphered the closing words. "We didn't start the fire, but we're fighting it." With that background, I finished my daily hike and went to my computer and the television where I watched the ominous climb of the price of crude oil rise and rise.

When the markets closed, the price of oil had set unheard of records with predictions of $150 per barrel crude oil by July 4, 2004. Finally the world was paying attention to the problem that so many of us have seen coming for a long time.

Why did this happen? Who do we blame? The "why" is not hard to answer; a finite resource has met an increasing population with increasing demands for energy. Energy derived primarily from oil. The "who" is even easier to answer. We need only walk over to our mirror and look. We must blame ourselves.

I remember my parents. Both my mother and my father were products of the great depression. They worked hard and had a nice home in the latter part of their lives. Somehow, they did not endorse the manner in which I spent my money. I was affronted that they did not share my ability to buy a new car, live in a nice home, and have as high a standard of living as theirs at a comparatively much earlier stage of life.

Now I understand why my parents constantly lectured on the value of frugality and of maintaining a constant vigil against waste of all of our resources. I still remember the constant reminders to turn off the lights when leaving a room. I still remember the "hand me down" clothing from older siblings who had outgrown them.

At this difficult time (and it will be difficult) in the history of our world, I think we take a page from the story of those who came before us. We turn to life in a simpler time. We conserve. We enter into a relationship of community with our neighbors. Only in this way can we preserve a social fabric in which we and our nation survive in a world that faces a truly dark time. My prediction is that hope will prevail. The things that change will enrich our lives not detract from them.

Some day in the future (and we hope it is soon) more efficient ways of utilizing the energy of the sun, the wind, and perhaps gravity itself will present humankind with the possibility of continued survival in an era of co-operation. The only way to stop the fire is to fight it and fight it we must.

Cannibalism For A Ride

Over a billion people world-wide are threatened with starvation. The cause: Many fingers are pointing at bio-fuel production to wean folks off of oil to run their automobiles. http://www.reuters.com/article/latestCrisis/idUSL03622524

The issue arose at a United Nations food conference or summit which opened this week in Rome, Italy. Food is becoming too expensive. The increase in the price of food stuffs is apparent to all of us in this country. To observe it, you simply walk through the grocery stores on a periodic basis.

Yet, the leadership of the greatest country in the world sits quietly with hands folded as this crisis unfolds. Well, you could say that a solution cannot be found, but this is different. We are not talking about just anything. We are talking about a moral imperative that we do not engage in cannibalism. It is no more and no less than just that when we choose to put food in the form of ethanol in our gas tanks while the bellies of children stay empty and lead to their slow and agonizing death.

If urging food for the innocent and sacrifice by the more fortunate leads to my designation as a quack or a screaming liberal, then, although I am neither of those things, I shall wear the label if a solution to that problem can be found.

If humankind is determined to be nothing more than a species of animal, as a lot of folks believe, then we do not have to worry about the future. We have plenty of people, probably too many, and we may just turn to that resource eventually in a classic struggle of the strongest to survive. On the other hand, we can choose to be something greater than ourselves and dedicate our lives again to what our recent commenter Rube Cretin has termed "the greatest vanity." We can dedicate ourselves to making the world a better place and maybe, just maybe, save it.